Earlier this week, the
team advanced to the Champions League final to be played in Berlin, Germany on June 6, 2015. The team will face underdogs Juventus in the match after Juventus bested Real Madrid in the semi-finals. It's been more than a decade since Barca and Juventus have met in European competition: the last match between the two was in 2003. Barca is the heavy favorite to take home the championship.

That might be little consolation for the team after it was announced this week that Barca will go to trial on tax fraud charges. The Spanish National Court has accepted the state prosecutor's request to move forward with a trial against the club, club president Josep Bartomeu, and former club president Alexandre "Sandro" Rosell. The charges are connected to the signing of the Brazil forward Neymar da Silva
Santos Júnior (known simply as Neymar).

Neymar made his professional sports debut on March 7, 2009, at the age of 17. He quickly became a star with former forward, über footballer (and fellow Brazilian) Pelé calling him "an excellent player."

In 2013, Neymar announced that he would be joining superstar Lionel Messi on Team Barca. At the time, the details of the contract to bring Neymar to Barca were kept relatively quiet. Leaks suggested the amount of the signing was on the low side for a footballer of Neymar's talent, at just about $65 million. The club has since acknowledged that Neymar's signing was worth significantly more: at least $114 million. Those dollars helped Neymar climb the ranks of the soccer elite and by 2014, he had bounded from #63 to #16 on Forbes' list of the World's Highest Paid Athletes racking up $17.6 million in salary and $16 million in endorsements last year alone.

But here's where things get tricky. Allegedly, the payments for the signing included payments made to a Brazilian company controlled by Neymar’s father, which prosecutors allege were taxable but disguised as other payments in order to avoid reporting and tax requirements.

Payments were also made to Neymar’s former club (Santos). However, Santos has argued that the transaction wasn't quite above-board and filed court papers in an effort to coax out the details of the entire transaction. The team has been vocal about its beliefs that Neymar's father orchestrated a shady deal for his son, with former Santos president Luis Alvaro Oliveira Ribeiro saying about Neymar’s father, "[h]e always denied that he had received money from Barcelona, ​​which is a demonstration of lack of character in my opinion unforgivable."

Neymar and his father have continued to deny any wrongdoing, suggesting that any resulting tax consequences of the sale would be addressed in Brazil. The Spanish Court disagreed, finding there is enough evidence to go to trial in Spain. The court issued a statement in the matter, saying:

Judge Jose de la Mata has issued a decree for the opening trial against the president of FC Barcelona, Jose Maria Bartomeu, his predecessor, Sandro Rosell and the club itself for crimes against the Treasury and corporate crime.

The total amount of tax at issue is at least €13m ($15 million US) though reports have suggested that the amounts at stake may be significantly more.

The team has denied any wrongdoing but it's clear that the team is suffering from some fallout related to the charges. FC Barcelona’s former president, Rosell, resigning his position in 2013 after accusations of misappropriation of funds related to the deal were made public.

Prosecutors are pushing for jail time for Rosell and Bartomeu, plus fines, interest and taxes from the defendants totaling nearly $70 million. No trial date has been set.